Anywhere there has been extended bouts of violent conflict you can guarantee land mines have been used. The problem is, once the conflict is over nobody goes back to remove the land mines. Instead, they remain under the ground and active, waiting for that unlucky someone to step on one.

Protecting people who live in an area where there are land mines involves a lot of work to locate and deactivate them, but offers no guarantee all the land mines will be found. So, an industrial design outfit in Colombia called Lemur Studio took up the challenge to come up with a solution. What they created is a landmine detection system that fits inside a shoe.

The idea behind the shoe is to allow anyone and everyone to become a land mine detection system. It works by installing a metal detector with a planar coil sensor in the insole. When this detects a land mine nearby, it sends a signal to a wristband the person is wearing warning them of the danger. This early warning system should stop them stepping on the mine and causing serious injury or even death.

As well as saving lives, if everyone wears these shoes then inevitably the locations of land mines are going to be discovered more quickly. If the positions are correlated, it may even hint at where more land mines could be positioned. And because it is a shoe and a wristband it can be offered to all ages and requires no learning beyond being told what the wristband is for.

There are thought to be some 110 million active land mines around the world, showing how important this shoe could end up being. Colombia has more than its fair share of active mines due to illegal armed groups laying them as they move through the country.

Lemur Studio is still working on the design of the shoe, but hopefully they manage to perfect it soon and the manufacturing costs are reasonable enough that anyone can afford a pair.